Young Writers Society

Hoss let out a terror-filled scream and his gun fell to the ground as he reached in pain for his injured hand. It took him a second to shake himself from the shock and reach back down for the gun in a panicked hurry.

James felt his head and heart pounding at the same rhythm. He turned to look up at Kate, but his vision went blurry. That didn't stop him from seeing the blood pouring out from her face.

His eyes fell over to Hoss, and half-awake understanding dawned on him. He tried to will himself to get up.

Kate kicked the gun away before he could reach it and kneed him in the head while he was still hunched over.

"Would you cut that shit out?" she said, "I'm not gonna fucking die."

Well, she might. She was already low on blood, and now she was losing it again. Fuck.

Hoss did not cut it out or at least tried not to. He fell backward, and his head hit the ground before he tried scrambling away, this time abandoning the gun.

"What the hell are you?!?" was his horrified cry.

James watched helplessly, pushing his shoulders forward and bringing his head with him. His vision was going white, and he felt like there wasn't enough air in the world to fill his lungs.

"I'm just as human as you are," she growled and picked up his abandoned gun. She aimed it at him. "I'd stop talking if I were you."

Hoss froze with the gun pinned on him, still holding his injured finger as he laid on the ground. He stared up at Kate with wide eyes.

She sheathed her sword and stepped closer to him. She spied the rope hanging off of his belt and gestured to it. "Toss that to me."

Hoss looked to Kate with bewilderment but obeyed, throwing her the loop of rope at his side.

She picked it up and leveled the gun back at his head, "Get back against that tree there."

She was making this up as she went along. Leaving people for dead wasn't really something she'd ever done before. Usually she just threatened to toss her unruly crew to the sirens when they managed to get a little too annoying for her tastes, but she'd never actually had to do that.

Hoss was obedient and backed up against the tree until he was sitting against it. He was breathing hard, and still cradling his hand where his finger was missing, and he was bleeding. A lot.

Kate moved carefully over to James and assessed whether he was fit to hold a gun. Hoss was losing blood and, logically speaking, Kate really, really needed that blood. Certainly more than he did.

She passed the gun off to James and made sure he could keep it aimed, then returned to Hoss. She quickly frisked him for weapons, then got to work tying him up. She had his hands in front, tied together like he was praying and pinned to his chest as the rest of the rope was used to secure the rest of him to the tree.

She might not be the most confident when it came to tying people up in general, but if there was one thing she knew, it was knots. There was no way in any of the hell's she'd heard of that he was going to get out of those bonds.

When all was finished, she stepped back to assess her work. He was still bleeding. Quite a lot, actually.

She pulled a long-empty flask from her pocket and held it to the stream of blood that came from where his finger once was. The blood seemed to flow much more slowly now that it wasn't just soaking into the rope.

When handed the gun, James understood what was going on. Kate couldn't get more blood from him, and Hoss was the only other human they had immediate access to... and getting his blood wasn't likely going to be a voluntary act on his part.

He very slowly and carefully stood to his feet and kept the gun pinned on Hoss. It took all of his energy to stay on his feet and keep a steady hand, but he'd had a lot of practice pretending to feel and look better than he was.

Hoss, however, was completely horrified. Once the knots were secured and Kate went up to his severed finger and treated it like a spout, his face paled with disgust and horror.

Kate glared at him, “Don’t look so grossed out. You shot me in the head, I’d say this is more than fair,” she grumbled.

The flask finally filled and she screwed in the lid. She was going to prepare that blood properly. She had to get this nasty taste out of her mouth somehow.

With that, she unwrapped the bandages from his shoulder and wrapped them around his hands, partially stopping the bleeding and, added bonus, ensuring that he couldn’t unbind his hands without unwrapped his wound, if he could manage either.

Her gaze drifted to the bloodied mess her bite had left on his shoulder. Her entire being was repulsed by the idea, but that one flask would never be enough to sustain her.

With a glare at the heavens, specifically toward where she knew the second star was hiding behind that big blue fog, she found a vein and...she was not going to think about what she was doing.

James had to look away. Maybe it was because his head was still spinning, and he felt like he could faint at the drop of a hat. Or maybe it was just different, seeing Kate drink from Hoss's open wound when Hoss looked scared out of his mind.

He kept holding the gun, but he didn't think he had to. Hoss wasn't looking at James anymore. Hoss had pinned his eyes shut, and tried, at least for a moment, in vain to escape the ties of the rope when he realized what Kate was about to do. Or, now doing.

James realized he hadn't quite thought this through. Giving blood seemed like one thing, but watching someone else have their blood taken was another. His stomach was doing flips, and his hands quivered.

He didn't feel so good.

Kate didn't know what was more revolting, the taste, or the fact that she was getting used to it. She could see Hoss getting pale, and she couldn't tell if it was from fear or actual blood loss.

She pulled away anyway, just in case. She didn't want him dead. He'd be unconscious soon anyway, if she had calculated how much blood she'd taken correctly.

She never did those damn calculations right, but maybe she'd get lucky and be better at guessing amounts with her mouth than with her eyes.

She wiped her mouth and got back to her feet, brushing herself off.

There was nothing normal of this glitter-coated situation, save for maybe Kate's newly-returned ability to walk and think clearly.

She used said-abilities to turn to James and take the gun from him. "Let's go," she said, wiping a drop of her own blood that threatened to drip into her eye.

Hoss fainted, still tied to the tree. James felt like he was in a haze, but he nodded and followed after Kate on unsteady feet.

As disturbing as it was seeing her talk with a bullet wound in her head, it wouldn't be his first time seeing it. Still. It was unsettling.